Thief of Time
Thief of Time is a lot sillier than I remember it being. It's not exactly a bad thing. But I remember loving this book, and this time around I only liked it. It was fun and funny. But the past few books have had a depth that this one lacked. So I ended up feeling a bit let down.
The thing this book is missing is the biting social commentary that I remember as such a hallmark of the Discworld series. Of course, it took years for the books to evolve from the silly adventures of Rincewind to the much more hard-hitting advancement in Ankh-Morpork. They're all satire, but some of them are a whole lot lighter than others.
The past few books have been heavy, though. Pratchett was tackling more complicated issues, holding that distorted mirror back up to our world and demanding that readers take a good look around. And so Thief of Time feels like a bit of a regression. It's a good, solid book. But by Discworld standards, it is merely okay.
There's a lot to like here. Susan, pragmatic to a fault, is always a fun protagonist. The introduction of the fifth horseman (Chaos) is delightful. There are a lot of jokes. There's also an unfortunate amount of poking fun at a nebulous Asian culture, like Pratchett has learned much since Interesting Times. It's nice to have some Asian characters, and Lu-Tze and Lobsang are wonderful. But it also shines a light on some of Pratchett's blind spots, which is uncomfortable.
I still mostly like this book. But it's definitely been downgraded from one of my favorites. I do wonder how it will play after I re-read the companion book, Night Watch, though. Having read them both did add some interesting shades to this book. One of these days I'll have to actually read them back to back.
The thing this book is missing is the biting social commentary that I remember as such a hallmark of the Discworld series. Of course, it took years for the books to evolve from the silly adventures of Rincewind to the much more hard-hitting advancement in Ankh-Morpork. They're all satire, but some of them are a whole lot lighter than others.
The past few books have been heavy, though. Pratchett was tackling more complicated issues, holding that distorted mirror back up to our world and demanding that readers take a good look around. And so Thief of Time feels like a bit of a regression. It's a good, solid book. But by Discworld standards, it is merely okay.
There's a lot to like here. Susan, pragmatic to a fault, is always a fun protagonist. The introduction of the fifth horseman (Chaos) is delightful. There are a lot of jokes. There's also an unfortunate amount of poking fun at a nebulous Asian culture, like Pratchett has learned much since Interesting Times. It's nice to have some Asian characters, and Lu-Tze and Lobsang are wonderful. But it also shines a light on some of Pratchett's blind spots, which is uncomfortable.
I still mostly like this book. But it's definitely been downgraded from one of my favorites. I do wonder how it will play after I re-read the companion book, Night Watch, though. Having read them both did add some interesting shades to this book. One of these days I'll have to actually read them back to back.
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